Israeli Security System to be Used in NY Housing Projects

An apartment security system developed in Israel which uses face and voice recognition will be implemented in New York housing projects.

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Elad Benari, 22/08/13 03:15

New York

Eliran Aharon

An apartment security system developed in Israel will be used in housing projects in New York, according to a report in the New York Post.

The system does not use keys but is rather based on face and voice recognition. A low-income project in Harlem and a new luxury condominium will be getting the high-tech security system, reported the New York Post.

A one-building pilot project at the 1,600-unit Knickerbocker Village has been using the SafeRise program from the Israeli-based FST21 that is now rolling out to all dozen buildings.

The company is headed by retired IDF Major General Aharon Zeevi Farkash, formerly the head of Israeli Military Intelligence. He said the system is the ultimate answer to lost ID cards and security guards who don’t really examine IDs.

“Everyone who tried the system, was, ‘Yes I want it,’” Farkash told the newspaper. “This is the best way to introduce new technology.”

In a typical installation process, residents of a building or students in a dorm or workers in an office get a facial scan during a fast enrollment process that also looks at other body measurements and movements.

After that, the individuals can simply stroll in and look at the camera to be cleared.

“We don’t do traditional face [scans],” according to Daniel Peled, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing.

“It is a fusion of identify technologies — one is facial recognition [but] there are behavior analytics and other items that are part of our patented technology,” he explained.

These also include voice recognition, where the system speaks to and screens visitors in either a man’s or woman’s voice. It can dial any predetermined phone, so one can speak to visitors and/or see them, decide to let them in, or shut them out. Visitors can also speak with a central monitoring station, a building’s concierge or security desk.

At Knickerbocker Village, the system speaks both English and Cantonese — while Mandarin is being added. Other languages are also available.

The cameras, which can also read license plates for entry into garages, are also specially designed to be vandal-resistant.

The company is now beginning pilot projects at 50 other private buildings, including the four 35-story Taino Towers in Harlem, according to the New York Post.

Broker Efraim Tessler of Keller Williams, whose father Yitzchak Tessler, developed the project, told the newspaper, “It’s also a smart doorbell that gets you around the world on your phone. And if you have a visitor staying for a week, you can give them a QR bar code.”

Several commercial buildings are also set to begin pilot programs soon, Farkash told the New York Post.